Its not easy to get a music video audience emotionally attached to a singing tree and animated bird, but in the video for "You & I" by Crystal Fighters, director Elliott Sellers pulls it off. Shot the same weekend that Elliott and the band also shot the video for "Separator," "You & I" is a video filled with visual effects, in-camera effects, special effects make up, and regular live action footage. Each of those plays a role in strengthening the connection between the audience and the characters. We talked to Elliott about "You & I," shooting two videos in a weekend, and his fascination with trees.
Doug: How did it work out that you directed two projects for Crystal Fighters? Were they booked at the same time or did you book them separately?
Elliott: I wrote on both tracks, they both came through at the same time. I really loved You and I, and when it came through, I was listening to it on my phone in a Trader Joe's. I was listening to it, just up to my ear on a low volume, and on the way home from Trader Joe's I wrote the treatment, and then the next day I think I got both videos because they said, "Hey, we really liked 'You and I', do you want to write something for 'Separator'?" I'd seen some videos on Vimeo that were really inspiring and really cool. Old-style filming techniques of body duplication, and Chronophotography. We shot both in one weekend. We actually shot the band's eyes in a garage the last night they were in town. They came over for an hour and they blinked and did weird stuff with their eyes to the song with playback, and that's the kaleidoscope effects that's throughout the video. It's actually their eyes, it's crazy.
Doug: You mentioned both videos being shot in one weekend. Was it just one budget for both videos?
Elliott: I think there was a little bit of bartering back and forth as far as price goes. I don't remember the exact number, but what we landed on was where we got this much and had to make two videos with it. The only possible way to do it was to take that one weekend. On Friday we shot You and I, and then Saturday was all Separator, and then Sunday was our big You and I day with the tree and location with the band - a lot of craziness!
Doug: There's a lot stuff going on just within the You and I video. You've got visual effects, in-camera effects, special effects make up, and regular live action footage. Was there any point during that weekend where you were like, "Oh no, this isn't going to happen," or were you on schedule and making it happen the whole time?
Elliott: This video went by really well and it just smoothed out more and more as it went along. The first day was really rocky; at a certain point my amazing PD, Tyler Jensen was fully in the wood chipper, puling the tree by a rope to make it look like it was getting shredded! He came out intact, needless to say it turned into a really enjoyable project. There was no stress and no changes, it was just seamless. Amazing, amazing work from people like Dan McKenzie, who did the stop-mo stuff with the bird and some of the actual fabrication. He killed it. He's actually in Portland right now doing a stop-mo feature out there, and he just did this project on the weekends and what he was giving to me on a Saturday and a Sunday was just blowing my mind. Literally bringing this taxidermy bird back to life, it was fucking unreal.
Doug: Did you have your team in mind going in? Did you know that they were going to be there for you when you got signed up for the projects?
Elliott: They came on right as I booked it. As I write and ideas, I reach out and ask people's thoughts creatively and technically, it's so important to me to have at least a grasp on the overall process, I love doing this so much, the little details and ultimately the creative collaboration is what I feed off of most.
Doug: You mentioned the band OKing the first cut and then being really easy to work with. Was that literally just that easy? You sent them the first cut and they went with it?
Elliott: Editing is one of the biggest parts for me, so when I submit an edit that you really enjoy, it's always hard to dishevel it and try things you may not be fully into. But in this case, it just all worked out in a seamless way, we started off on the right foot and that same cut held the whole way through! It's cool to see that this one happened the way it did. It was really an honor, for sure.
Doug: You mentioned that you've been writing a lot of tree treatments and that trees are really important to you. Is there something specific environmentally that you were hoping that the You and I video was meant to support? Or is it more of just a story based around a tree and a bird and their relationship?
Elliott: Honestly, it was fully intended to be a story of just this bird and this tree, and their little journey together. However, when I met the band, they totally connected with the nature aspect of it, and the environmental-conscious aspects of it. I was super pleased to see that they got something completely different, and even more, out of what I'd initially put into it. That was great, and it full-circled the video for me. I felt it was romantic, but they saw something that was much different. It was cool to see the different perspective of thought. It's really special to have that communication with the artists you're working with, because the more connected you are as a creative collective, the bigger and better the results will be.
